


Spontaneity

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 13:38:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4878892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All of Eridan's carefully articulated plans, precautions, and expectations are cast to the wayside. Again. Why he'd think for a second that they would work on her of all people is a perfect mystery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spontaneity

They hadn’t really wanted to go home yet after a whole afternoon of shopping. So they’d left their bags in their cars and went to dinner afterwards. Of course, Eridan insisted on going somewhere mildly decent. He’s not some common salty bulge-chaffer, and like hell is he going to let her poison herself with cheap shit. She deserves better than that. He’d paid for it all too, and felt damn proud of himself for it. The flirtation that followed put a damper on the mood, though. Not that he dislikes flirtation, but because. Well, in this situation, every little thing makes him analyze far too much.

He’s a bit of a flirt himself, and he knows this to be a trait they both share. But Roxy had been laying it on a bit thick lately, and it didn’t occur to him until later that evening that she might be taking his carefully plotted advances the wrong way. The thought of participating in the hodgepodge of horrendously ill-sorted emotions that is human romance is downright detestable, and it’d definitely throw a wrench in his strategy of slowly working her up to the idea of an alternative. Hopefully he’s just over-thinking things.

With Roxy holding onto his arm, he walks with her back out to the parking lot once they’re done eating. It must be pushing ten o'clock at this point, and he’s only half listening to her as he glances around, keeping himself aware of their surroundings.

“I ate soooo much!” She whines half-heartedly, smiling despite her attempt at a pitiful tone. She’s leaning on him and stifling a giggle, and he’s glad he’d advised her against looking too long at the alcohol section of the menu. Who knows how badly her motor skills would be suffering at this very moment. “I might explode, Eridan.”

“Portion control’ll keep those kind a things from happenin’ if you practice a bit a self-restraint once in a while.”

That only gets him a snort in response. “It was so good though! You sure know how to pick ‘em, Danny boy.”

Eridan wrinkles his nose, vaguely disgusted. It’s a gross humanization of his hatch name, which he is very proud of thank you, but he doesn’t bitch quite as much when she says it. At this point he thinks she does it just to tease him for being such a 'pompous prune’ about some stupid nickname. “Yeah, it was. Ain’t no excuse to eat yourself sick, though.”

“You could have saved me from this horrible fate. You could have made me stop.”

Well he’d tried to. He really did. But that face she’d made over the fudge brownie thing she’d wanted dove right past his attempt at putting his foot down and lording his ownership of the check over her. “You say that like I didn’t try, now I guess you can be miserable.”

There’s a big grin on her face now, and she burps. Gross. “Whoops. 'Scuse me.” She snickers, “Don’t be so callous about it though, I can totally tell you’re concerned.”

“Am not.”

“You are!”

“No. Wallow alone in the painful fuckin’ existence you’ve brought upon yourself.”

“You’re rude, y'know that? You should be nicer to me.” They stop when they get to where their cars are parked, sort of lingering there for a few moments.

Eridan gives her a look, managing to push down the smile that threatens to break his face. “Yeah, and why is that?” He pulls his arm away from hers, reaching up to stroke a thumb over her cheek. Briefly, he thinks about how nice her skin is. Dark, smooth to the touch. She has freckles like he does, about as numerous as his are, but they don’t stand out as much. They’re nearly black against her dark brown complexion.

Welcoming the gesture, she leans her cheek against his hand. Her grin gets a little bit wider. “'Cause you’re a sweetheart.”

“I don’t gotta be.”

“But you wanna be.” One of her hands reaches up to hold his, keeping it there when she turns her head to kiss it.

Being the poor romantic sack of circulatory organ that it is, his sad little pusher skips a beat. It’s a bold move that brings a flustered shade of purple to his face. “I. Well, yeah.”

He leaves his hand in hers, anxious when left in the silence that follows her laughter. Her fingers lace with his, and her other hand comes up to hold his face as he’d done with hers. Wasn’t he supposed to be the one courting her? Not that she’d know it, he supposes. Humans just don’t know how this quadrant wo–

Even if he’d seen that kiss coming, it’d have utterly floored him. More so than the one on his hand, the one on his lips has him stunned for a fraction of a second and hardly lasts long enough to reciprocate very much. When she pulls away, it feels like she’s taken any attempt at composure with her. “Roxy.”

Actually, she looks almost as nervous as he does. Smiling still, but he can see his uncertainty reflected in those pools of gorgeous magenta. “I shoulda asked crabby dude if that’s a thing moirails do, huh?”

It takes him a moment to understand, but the pieces fall together rather quickly once realization kicks in. “Did you--did Kar?”

Her eyes get wide with shock, and she quickly lets go of him to cover her mouth. “Aw, shit! I wasn’t supposed to tell you he told me.”

Did Karkat go and tell her that he had a crush on her? Really? That’s a total violation of friend code! Or rather, their specific friend code. The first rule of which is that everyone’s business is fair game to gossip about except each other’s. “He’s fuckin’ dead. I’m wringin’ his fat warmblooded neck till he squeals when I see him.”

Roxy waves her hands at him defensively, “No, no. He told me because, uh, I kind of brought it up first.”

How does that happen? He’d learned the hard way from her sister that even here, with their cultures existing parallel to each other, humans just don’t get the intricacies and nuances of troll romances. Especially the black and conciliatory ones. “You’re pale for me?”

“Well, yeah? I think so.” She answers hesitantly, and he tries for a moment to put himself in her shoes. This is probably way out of her element, with no past experience or knowledge to really compare it to, and he can imagine he’d be a bit cautious about it too, in that case.

He takes a deep breath and nods. “Well. How do you feel, exactly? About me, that is.”

She thinks for a second, then gives a little disclaimer of a shrug. “Well, other than the shit you’d expect. I think you’re adorable and all that of course. I’ve wanted to kiss you for a while, and you know how I feel about them cute li'l fins.” He’s conscious of how they twitch at the mention, and she breaks into another smile, “But yeah, I mean. I like talking to you. I feel good about those times when we sit down and bitch to each other about things, and when I get to make you feel better about shit. Especially when you actually smile.”

Yeah. Yeah, maybe there’s a chance here. Wow, that’s a surreal thought. “That sounds like it might be pale, yeah. I mean you don’t uh, you don’t got any concupiscent feelings here?”

Another shrug. “For a while, a little bit. Not so much anymore though. I mean you’re hot and all, and ‘concupiscent’ stuff,” She uses air quotes with her fingers, rolling her eyes a bit. “prob'ly wouldn’t be awful. But I don’t feel like these feelings are related to that in any way.”

Understandable, he supposes, and shrugs right back at her. “Why don’t we talk this out some more at my place or somethin’? I’d rather not stand around here in this parkin’ lot all night.” And of course, if he gets a new moirail tonight, he’ll want a more pleasant setting in which to get out some of these pent up affections. A movie and cuddling? Maybe a sleepover? He’s a bit excited just thinking about it.

“Ha. Yeah, yeah, I gotcha.” She gets on her tip toes to give him another peck and pats him on the shoulder. “Seeya there, then.”

Roxy turns around to get in her car, and he has to stop himself from touching the phantom feeling of her on his lips as he turns to get into his own car. Gah. “Yeah, seeya.”


End file.
